52 APPENDIX. 



die, from the loss of substance which they have devoured, promotes 

 the success of their labors ; nor do they desist till the awning is suffi- 

 ciently strong to protect the whole family from weather. To this place 

 of shade and protection the caterpillar resorts when about to exchange 

 his old dress for a new one, or when the heat is too great, or when 

 it rains. That they never go farther from their nest than the length 

 of the bough which bears them, is unhandsomely imputed by their 

 historian to a want of courage ; whereas it is only a little of that 

 salutary caution which ensures success in biped life, and a fixed 

 home to the unambitious, who never forsake the bough that can bear 

 them, for the one that may. The thread they spin is the boundary 

 of their walk, and the clue by which (as they are blind) they feel 

 their way homewards. In the morning, when the sun's cheerful 

 rays are full upon their nest, they all turn out for a walk, either 

 loitering along the branch, or sitting in the balcony of their own 

 construction. "C'est un spectacle tres-amusant que de voir ces 

 petites chenilles aller et venir, les unes d'un cole, les autres d'un 

 autre et s'enlrebaiser comme les fourmis quand elles se rencon- 

 trent." The reader sees that in all this the caterpillar leads a not 

 less agreeable than intelligent life, and if he can impute to a blind 

 and brainless insect the design of spinning a thread by which to 

 feel his way home, as if in consciousness of that blindness, and can 

 believe that the necessary intelligence for these actions belong to 

 the living worm which executes them from generation to genera- 

 tion, why I desire not to meet with a more liberal comrade in my 

 journey through life ; he will make the most candid allowances I 

 am persuaded, for the most anomalous and equivocal actions of his 

 fellow-creatures, and put the very kindest construction on these 

 lucubrations of mine. 



